Can I rewire my old keyboard for USB?
QI have a well-loved HQK BITS9001 keyboard, which has a DIN plug. Due to upgrades, all my current equipment uses USB. I purchased a new USB keyboard, which works but lacks the feel of the older one. So, I purchased a DIN-TO-PS/2 adapter and a PS/2-TO-USB adapter in the hope that this would work. Sadly, it did not. Is there a female DIN-TO-USB Type-a adapter that you know of? Failing this, do you know of any wiring diagrams that would let me manually rewire the DIN connections to a USB plug? Nic Bradley
AThe USB standard involves all manner of communications protocols, so you will not be able to rewire manually – because it isn’t a case of simply mapping the pins from the
DIN to USB. Conversely, that would be possible for DIN to PS/2, as it is just a pinout-to-pin conversion. However, you already have a DIN-TO-PS/2 adapter, so there’s no need. The hurdle, then, is the PS/2-TO-USB part. The trouble here is that many of the cheaper adapters are ‘passive’ and interpret the incoming signals, so they’re good only for a PS/2 mouse. Instead, you need an ‘active’ adapter specifically for a keyboard. One that handles both mouse and keyboard will be an even better bet, as you know it’ll have the necessary electronics to interpret the more complex input of a keyboard. So, with the strong caveat that we cannot guarantee this particular example will work, the pictured dual-input adapter from Micro Connectors, Inc (around £17, www.snipca.com/41512) is of the calibre that should do the job. You won’t need the mouse connector, obviously, but you can buy with the assurance that a cable like this has been specifically designed to offer keyboard compatibility also.